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Phonetics 1 - Exercise 1 in preparation for week 2

DO THIS EXERCISE FIRST ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN INTUITION.
Then look the words up in a pronunciation dictionary. How many mistakes did you make?

(1) These three word have different vowels. How do you pronounce them?

• gone (she’s gone home)
• phone (the phone is ringing)
• done (I’ve done what you told me to do)

(2) Now take the following three words, and pair them with those in (1) so that they rhyme:

• flown (the bird had flown)
• wan (his face was wan with fright)
• fun (we had fun at the party)

(3) Now add these words in the same way

• ton (a ton of sand)
• on (get on with it)
• loan (she took a loan from the bank)

(4) Now add the word shone (the sun shone all day). You’ll find it matches different words
    in (1), depending on whether you use and American or a British accent .

Write you answers down, and bring them to class.